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Global warming and the rapid depletion of natural assets have made many countries anxious to find green growth strategies, including global partnerships and international business. China has positioned itself as the right partner for sustainable growth and development in Africa through different engagement routes. In this study, we employ fixed effects on a sample of 27 countries over 17 years to examine the impact of China's foreign direct investment and trade on green growth in Africa. Our results show that China's investment and trade affect green growth differently. We find that foreign direct investment and export have a negative impact on green growth. Contrarily, we find importation from China to increase green growth. Our results suggest that the growing presence of China in Africa through direct investment and exportation of natural resources is likely to hamper achieving the Sustainable Development Growth goals. However, countries can harness some benefits from importing sustainable products from China. Our study extends the green growth literature and informs policymakers of the need to pay attention to the effects of growing Chinese‐Africa engagement on attaining sustainable and greener growth. The results are robust to different identification techniques, including two‐stage least square and system generalised method of movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectively managing the diversity and complexity of human settlements is pivotal in tackling the sustainability challenges we face in the Anthropocene. Conceptualizing a city's human settlement as a unified social–ecological system and investigating its system archetype and evolutionary pattern offer a promising approach to understanding sustainability challenges within specific spatio-temporal contexts. This study introduced a novel approach to assessing and characterizing human settlements using a spatio-temporal two-tier structure archetype analysis for human settlement systems. Applying inductive clustering to an integrated dataset, we identified five typical human settlement systems for 2019 and eight change patterns (2001–2019) in the Yangtze River Delta region. By linking inductively recognized human settlement systems into deductive categories of human-nature connectedness and associating inductive change patterns with deduced phases within the adaptive cycle, we defined five system spatial archetypes and three archetypical evolutionary patterns, revealing the typical interaction between them. This enabled us to understand sustainability challenges for each interaction, formulating seven tailored solutions to promote place-based development in human settlements. Generally, our approach showcases considerable potential in uncovering human settlement challenges, ultimately contributing to addressing these challenges at the local level within the broader context of global sustainability issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and urbanization have caused unprecedented impacts in local identification and cultural protection, and rivers that cross administrative boundaries have attracted attention in the protection of local cultural heritage, resource integration and mobilization. This study selected several cities in the Yellow River Basin and the Rhine River Basin as examples, using street view images, combining locality theory with computer vision analysis methods, and proposing a framework for quantitative research on locality expression. Then the generation mechanism of the local characteristics was discussed. The results show that the cities in the two countries show significant differences, whereas some cities in the basin are similar. The images of the 'Built Environment' and 'Social Life' are more conducive to identifying the cities. The construction qualities of 'Remains' and 'Water' are the key built environmental factors for the coexistence of locality differences and similarities. The protection of historic buildings and less manual intervention in the water environment are of great significance to the local shaping of German cities and have reference value for developing Chinese cities. The research responds to the homogenization of the urban landscape, the symbiotic relationship between cities and water, and sustainable development in river basin cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the existence of plentiful studies on how plants can positively affect human wellbeing, few have focused on the potential effects of flower colours on stressed people. The present study was designed to illustrate the psychophysiological relaxation impacts of seeing purple and blue hydrangea flowers among finance workers. Thirty employees were asked to view purple, blue flowers or an empty table for 3-min, during which we measured the participants' brain activity, heart rate variability and skin conductance. We also assessed their emotions and mood states. Findings suggest that, compared with viewing the control, viewing blue and purple flowers resulted in a significant increase in alpha relative waves in the prefrontal and occipital lobes, and a significant increase in parasympathetic nervous activity. A significant increase in the sensation vote for 'comfort', 'relaxation' and 'cheerfulness', as well as a dramatic improvement in the mood state was observed. The results show clear evidence for the support of the use of blue and purple flowering plants in places where comfort and calmness are required. In addition, blue flowers were more favoured and had the greatest positive effects. Results indicate that viewing flowering plants would be a promising therapeutic approach for enhancing physiological functions and improving psychological relaxation for office workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green space has its important social, economic and ecological benefits. Quantifying of those benefits helps healthy development of urban green space. The essay discusses approach of quantifying direct economic benefits of land utilizing and construction derivated from urban green space system itself through the optimization of space structure and ecological function. It is the affirmation and promotion of the achievements of urban greening industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Our aim was to explore the association between plasma cytokines and febrile status epilepticus ( FSE) in children, as well as their potential as biomarkers of acute hippocampal injury. Methods Analysis was performed on residual samples of children with FSE (n = 33) as part of the Consequences of Prolonged Febrile Seizures in Childhood study (FEBSTAT) and compared to children with fever (n = 17). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was obtained as part of FEBSTAT within 72 h of FSE. Cytokine levels and ratios of antiinflammatory versus proinflammatory cytokines in children with and without hippocampal T2 hyperintensity were assessed as biomarkers of acute hippocampal injury after FSE. Results Levels of interleukin (IL)-8 and epidermal growth factor ( EGF) were significantly elevated after FSE in comparison to controls. IL-1β levels trended higher and IL-1 RA trended lower following FSE, but did not reach statistical significance. Children with FSE were found to have significantly lower ratios of IL-1 RA/ IL-1β and IL-1 RA/ IL-8. Specific levels of any one individual cytokine were not associated with FSE. However, lower ratios of IL-1 RA/ IL-1β, IL-1 RA/1L-6, and IL-1 RA/ IL-8 were all associated with FSE. IL-6 and IL-8 levels were significantly higher and ratios of IL-1 RA/ IL-6 and IL-1 RA/ IL-8 were significantly lower in children with T2 hippocampal hyperintensity on MRI after FSE in comparison to those without hippocampal signal abnormalities. Neither individual cytokine levels nor ratios of IL-1 RA/ IL-1β or IL-1 RA/ IL-8 were predictive of MRI changes. However, a lower ratio of IL-1 RA/ IL-6 was strongly predictive (odds ratio [OR] 21.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.17-393) of hippocampal T2 hyperintensity after FSE. Significance Our data support involvement of the IL-1 cytokine system, IL-6, and IL-8 in FSE in children. The identification of the IL-1 RA/ IL-6 ratio as a potential biomarker of acute hippocampal injury following FSE is the most significant finding. If replicated in another study, the IL-1 RA/ IL-6 ratio could represent a serologic biomarker that offers rapid identification of patients at risk for ultimately developing mesial temporal lobe epilepsy ( MTLE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]